Wednesday, June 08, 2011

The Obama Economy is Even Worse than You Thought

The policies of the Obama administration have led to the weak condition of the American economy. Growth during the coming year will be subpar at best, leaving high or rising levels of unemployment and underemployment.... The picture is even gloomier if we look in more detail. Estimates of monthly GDP indicate that the only growth in the first quarter of 2011 was from February to March. After a temporary rise in March, the economy began sliding again in April, with declines in real wages, in durable-goods orders and manufacturing production, in existing home sales, and in real per-capita disposable incomes. It is not surprising that the index of leading indicators fell in April, only the second decline since it began to rise in the spring of 2009.

...The economy will continue to suffer until there is a coherent and favorable economic policy. That means bringing long-term deficits under control without raising marginal tax rates—by cutting government outlays and by limiting the tax expenditures that substitute for direct government spending. It means lower tax rates on businesses and individuals to spur entrepreneurship and investment. And it means reforming Social Security and Medicare to protect the living standards of future retirees while limiting the cost to future taxpayers.

All of these things are doable. But the Obama administration has not done them and shows no inclination to do them in the future. _WSJ

There is no guarantee that an economy will thrive, even if an oversized government like that of the US did everything right. But when a bloated monstrosity such as the US federal government does everything wrong -- as under Obama -- it is almost impossible for the economy to thrive.

The US under Obama has become a depressing drag on the world's economic prosperity, as the headstrong tunnel-visioned techniques of revolutionary community organising are applied to the controls of the world's only superpower.